Saturday, November 13, 2976
IPA AWARDS WEEK BEGINS WITH GOLDEN BAT HONOREES
The 2076 Islandian Pro Alliance season is now history... all that is left is Awards Week, when the best of the best are honored... for the next 6 days the best IPA batters, pitchers, rookies, defenders and skippers will be revealed.
Starting off the glittering array of diamond talents is the Golden Bat Awards... this year winners are Ethan Youngman of the IPA Pro Cup champion Wynnamac Sundowners and Virgil Welsh of the Denton City Redbirds... both of them are first-time winners.
Youngman was the recipient of the
Ruthlandian Union Golden Bat Award... just in his second season with the Macs the 26-year-old second baseman topped the entire IPA with a .370 BA and led the Sundowners to the RU East Division crown... he delivered 207 hits, 15 homers, 98 RBIs, 88 runs and stole 38 bases... lifetime Youngman is batting .347.
Coming in second in the RU Golden Bat competition was Cold Creek's first baseman Dude Gurley, who paced his club to the runner-up spot in the RU East race... Gurley finished second to Youngman with a .356 BA... he topped the league with 133 RBIs and slammed 27 home runs.
Third place in the balloting was Rod Rheems of the Waleska Westerners... the 25-year-old third baseman batted .349 and was third in the batting race... Rheems had 25 roundtrippers, 96 RBIs, 97 runs and 15 stolen bases... the Cowpokes finished a very close third in the RU South.
The
2076 Tycobbian Union Golden Bat victor was Virgil Welsh, Denton City standout first sacker... he was the runner-up last year in the top batter category... this season Welsh led the league in RBIs for the second straight year with 121... the 9-year veteran hit .317 with 35 homers... he was a prime player in the Redbirds season... they finished sixth to division champion Rolling Hills in the tight TU West Division, but were only 6 games out of first place... in his career Welsh has posted a .285 BA with 214 home runs and 780 runs batted in... twice he has been an All-Star.
Turon center fielder Eliott Carleton finished second in the TU Golden Bat voting with a .353 BA, second to Kenwood's Johnny Davidson, who hit .356... the 30-year-old Carleton was important to the Typhoons second-place finish in the TU South... they were 9 games behind winning San Alejo... in his 6th year he came in first in the Tycobbian Union with 108 runs and 92 stolen bases... Carleton has been an All-Star the last two seasons.
Johnny Davidson blossomed in his third year with the Kenwood Wildcats... the 22-year second baseman captured the TU batting crown with a .356 BA, topping the league with 210 hits... the Wildcats wound up second in the TU West to Rolling Hills, just 3 games off the pace... Davidson made the All-Star team this season.
